


right now

by Elsinore_and_Inverness



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Drumknott's Birthday, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29443335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsinore_and_Inverness/pseuds/Elsinore_and_Inverness
Summary: Drumknott looked at the ceiling without moving his head “Maybe you can have another piece of cake and cease subjecting me to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”
Relationships: Rufus Drumknott & Havelock Vetinari, Rufus Drumknott/Havelock Vetinari
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	right now

“My aunt has sent something for you,” Lord Vetinari said, settling into the chair opposite his secretary. The fire was roaring in the grate as Drumknott had been drawn, earlier that day, into giving an honest answer of how uncomfortable he was in the late Offle chill.

“That’s kind of her,” Rufus said, watching it occur to the Patrician to take off his cloak and his Lordship’s long fingers playing with the buttons of his high collar. “Is it what I think it is?”

Vetinari sighed and nodded.

“Pseudopolis champagne and a typeset note. If I didn’t know better I’d think it were a joke.”

Vetinari frowned. “A joke?”

“Playing at being the kind of socially aware upper-class person who sends generic gifts to strangers, surely you have heard the term—”

“Cava collectivist? Prosecco populist? Sekt syndicalist?” Vetinari said, variously glottalizing and hissing the consonants so the words themselves seemed to fizz. “I was not aware the literal distribution sparkling wine was a component of the conceit.”

“You ask what people want like it’s a formula. So would I unless I know someone very well. But she does know me and I am easy to shop for.”

“She does know you and that you’d like a drink on your birthday but wouldn’t buy one for yourself.”

Rufus seemed taken aback.

“And that the clerks would be getting you stationary, and you find it hard not to judge people’s calligraphy.” 

Drumknott looked at the ceiling without moving his head “Maybe you can have another piece of cake and cease subjecting me to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”

Lord Vetinari smiled innocently. “I may do one without the other,” he said, sliding the cake safe across the table.

“I thought you were young when you were the age I am now.”

“Forty.”

“Which is strange because I feel like an ancient, aching bearer of witness. But I remember seeing you, standing at the top of the double staircase, and thinking you looked so lost and atrabilious. Not like you were still learning the ropes of the job, but of being alive. You had already been ruling the city for a decade.”

“Turnabout is fair play, I suppose,” Vetinari turned the fork he was holding over in his hand, so the tines pointed up and then down. “Margot says it does not matter if I don’t feel like a human being if I’m getting things done. Which is my own fault for speaking imprecisely.”

“You meant person.” 

“I did.”

“Do you feel like a person now?”

Vetinari looked at Drumknott in the warm glow of the fire, feeling like the moment was as clear and piercing as the light reaching the bottom of one of those odd lakes with no suspended sediment. “Right now? Yes, I think I do.” 

“Right now is a good qualifier.”


End file.
